Psychology Analysis

Psychology Analysis

Lorena Thoma
Psych 1 Rm. # D135
Professor Nancy Melucci

Term Paper:
A Beautiful Mind.

The film, A Beautiful Mind, is about the life of Mathematician John Nash and his struggle with paranoid schizophrenia. It follows his journey from the point in his life that he is completely unaware of his schizophrenia, to the point where, thanks to Princeton University, his employer at the time, along with his dedicated and faithful wife Alicia and their accommodations for him, find a way to properly manage his condition. The film succeeds in realistically describing the disturbed thinking, emotion, and behavior that characterizes this disorder, as well as the difficult management and recovery from schizophrenia. The movie communicates the vital importance of the factors that contributed to Nash’s recovery and achievement as an intellectual, such as the Nobel Prize in 1994 and world acclaim. His story shows first-hand the problems that come with the territory. This is the story about the mystery and complex functions of the mind, in its three main acts, genius, madness, and reawakening.in this paper I will discuss how accurate the depiction of schizophrenia is in the film.
Nash shows many of the symptoms characterized by schizophrenia, such as being socially withdrawn. For example, at the beginning of the film Nash is very dissociated and awkward in social situations. He doesn’t seem to be well associated with people and becomes very anxious and disoriented around others most of the time he is under the assumption that people do not like him, and is rarely in the company of others. As Nash’s schizophrenia increasingly gets worse he begins to notice words and phrases in the newspaper and put them together in a way that confirms his suspicions that supernatural things were happening specifically for him to see. His brain begins to play games with his mind and it is virtually impossible not to trust your own mind; that is why the...